Culture shock is a fear that everyone seems to have, but many also wish to experience it firsthand through travel. I was one of those people. When I first arrived in Japan, I was a babe lost in the woods of language barriers and cultural differences. I was wandering around Haneda Airport for most of my 2-hour layover, second-guessing the directions that were given to me. When I arrived at Okayama Airport, I spent 5 minutes trying to translate the name of my hotel to the cab driver. The first day of the Discovery Program’s orientation was spent doing mountains of paperwork that felt so unnecessary at the time.
Despite all these experiences I managed to survive, and, looking back, it was more about the language barrier than it was a culture shock, and other things that could be considered cultural shocks were swiftly dealt with before they became a ‘real’ shock.
How garbage is separated in Japan initially “overwhelmed” me, but within the first month I was correcting my roommates on what went where. Taking shoes off at the door was something I had been trained to do by my Grandmother since a young age, so there was very little shock from that experience. Bowing quickly became a matter of muscle memory. Not tipping was something I was used to doing in America because I couldn’t ever afford to leave any tips. To be quite honest, I haven’t really been ‘culture shocked’ by anything. Maybe it will still happen, I’ve only been here for over a year, but I have my doubts.
My two biggest actual culture shocks: The price/amount of cheese and meat, and the efficiency of everything from trains to clerks. These were my two legitimate shocks, and I had prior knowledge of the otherworldly efficiency before arriving.
So, why was I personally not shocked by the cultural differences between America and Japan? Simple answer: I wanted to be shocked.
When I first landed in Japan, I was expecting to get off the plane and feel something different. Really, I just felt jetlagged. Too much looking likely led to my brain being battle-ready for the inevitable differences and it worked overtime to connect the differences with past experiences and internalized cultural knowledge. Everything that I knew was different or even the opposite of America was quickly melted away by quick use of logic. While this may have taken some of the initial fun and wonder out of my overall experience, I believe that it helped me in the long run in terms of settling in and becoming comfortable living in a foreign nation.
Please consider the following my dear readers: If you look for something incessantly you may very well find it, but does it still have the impact you hoped it would when you first started searching? Learn to be pleasantly surprised by things.
The cultural differences have shrunk to the point of almost being invisible. I may still see the occasional page from some obscure manga that makes me question existence, or the occasional food article that makes my eyebrow twitch uncontrollably, but otherwise I have made myself at home and conquered my fear of the unknown.
The Polyphony 